US to crack down on ivory to protect elephants

AP foreign, Tuesday February 11 2014

JOSH LEDERMAN

Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) â The United States is cracking down on the sale and purchase of ivory in hopes of curbing illicit poaching that's threatening to wipe out elephants and other species in Africa.

The ivory ban is a key component of a new, national strategy for combating wildlife trafficking, unveiled Tuesday by the White House, seven months after President Barack Obama issued a call to action during a visit to Tanzania. In addition to the ivory ban, the U.S. will seek to strengthen global enforcement and international cooperation to fight the illicit trade.

"We're seeing record-high demand for wildlife products," said Grant Harris, who heads Africa policy for the White House's National Security Council. "The result is an explosion of illicit trade and wildlife trafficking in recent years."

Wildlife advocates are concerned that without forceful global action, elephants and rhinos face extinction. Once numbering in the millions, Africa's elephant population has dwindled to 500,000 or less, and nearly 10 percent of the remaining population is being slaughtered each year, said Dan Ash, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The illicit industry also has significant national security implications. Because wildlife trafficking is often perpetrated by well-armed syndicates that thrive in regions with weak laws and porous borders, U.S. security officials say it poses a global security threat, just as the U.S. is seeking to combat growing extremism and violence in parts of Africa.

Importing ivory into the U.S. has been illegal, with narrow exceptions for antiquities. But once the ivory is in the country, domestic transactions have been essentially unregulated. That means someone who puts an ivory chess set for sale on eBay, for example, faced little risk of running afoul of law enforcement â even if they lacked proof the item was an antiquity and therefore exempt.

"This legal trade has essentially provided a smoke-screen that makes it possible for this illicit trade and has made it more difficult for our enforcement officials to ferret out that crime and then prosecute that crime," Ash said in an interview.

Under the new strategy, the federal government will start confiscating ivory items unless sellers can provide documentation that they were imported legally. The Fish and Wildlife Service will also seek to target organized trafficking rings for prosecution.